Love Bug
by lancemclame
Summary: Keith starts acting unusually one day while they're out on a supply run; Lance has to adjust to the changes.


"Lance" he hears Keith call from a few feet back.

"Yeah, buddy?" Lance turns, waiting for the other paladin to catch him up with a little jog. They continue walking, side by side through the unfamiliar planet headed toward the town center. Keith doesn't speak for a beat or two, and Lance regards him curiously waiting for him to report whatever it was he had needed him for. There's an intense sort of look in his eyes that Lance doesn't recognise, an instinctual hesitance uncoiling itself deep in his gut. Then the silence is broken.

"Can I hold your hand?" It's almost casual the way he says it, with a decisiveness and surety that makes the question seem completely normal. This is what sets the alarm bells blaring in Lance's mind, a voice inside chanting wrong, wrong, wrong.

When Keith doesn't move to explain any further as to why he suddenly needs to hold his team mates hand, just looks at him expectantly, Lance reacts without much thought. He grabs Keith in one of the defensive holds they had learned in training a few weeks ago and holds him in place to prevent any attacks as he growls incredulously "Who are you? What have you done to Keith?"

And though Lance knows the real Keith could easily have overpowered him and escaped the hold, he's strangely pliant throughout Lance's manoeuvre. "I am Keith" he responds, frowning a little.

"Why do you want to hold my hand then?!"

There's not even a second of contemplation before he states as if it's the most obvious thing in the world "I love you."

Lance feels his heart plummet through his chest.

"Hunk! Shiro! Pidge! Someone get over here!" he practically screeches. Shiro is the first one over.

"What's going on?" he asks, looking between them, Keith still in Lance's defensive hold.

"Keith. He-uh, something's wrong. He asked- and then he said-" he groans, dragging a hand down his face, lost for words for once in his life "This clearly isn't Keith."

"How do you know?"

Though he can feel the heat spring to his face, he steels his jaw and tries to look more confident than he feels "He said he loves me."

"I do" Keith mutters, speaking up for the first time since he had been talking to Shiro. He is totally relaxed in Lance's grip, leaning into him a little like it's the most comfortable place in the world. Lance throws Shiro a pointed look, one that says _see what I mean?_

Surprise registers on Shiro's face "Maybe Keith is just... feeling honest?"

Lance feels his jaw drop, but is spared having to respond as Pidge and Hunk finally walk over.

"Ugh, Lance what did you do to him this time?" Pidge says, looking at a spot on Keith's neck a little below his jaw "have you guys upgraded from bickering to actual fist fights now?"

"What are you talking about?" Lance follows Pidge's gaze, eyebrows furrowing. It's only then that he notices the red mark newly acquired on Keith's neck. He drops his hold on him, moving his hands to frame the mark without thinking to get a closer look. Keith just tilts his head back, giving him better access. Normal Keith would have shoved him off in an instant.

"It's a bite." He realises out loud.

"Gross, you bit him?" Pidge says, scrunching up her nose, smirking a little.

"What? No!" Lance splutters "why would i-? No!"

Keith's lip twists into a mischievous grin, an eyebrow raising as he meets Lance's eye "I wouldn't mind if you did."

Lance flounders for a second, unable to reply to that declaration, before Keith bursts into an outright _giggle._

"I'm dead. I have died and entered another life. There is no way this is happening." Lance announces with absolute certainty "Keith just made a joke! Are we all seeing this? He made a joke and then giggled! He was practically flirting!"

"He was definitely flirting." Hunk chimes in.

"Which proves my point! That is not Keith!" He says, pointing dramatically at the boy in front of him.

"I am!" Keith fires back, frowning again.

"Ask him something only the real Keith would know?"

"Good idea, Hunk" Shiro responds, and they all turn to look at Lance expectantly.

"Okay," he says, mostly to himself as he thinks "uh, how'd we get out that broken elevator shaft on the way to the pool?"

"Back to back, walked up the walls." He answers immediately.

"Back on earth, how'd I get blue to open her barrier?"

"You knocked." Keith is smiling softly, looking undeniably _fond_ , and though the answers he's giving are right that look is wrong. He's never seen such an open Keith, his full attention focused on Lance for once. So he continues to question, Keith seeming perfectly content to rattle off answers to indulge him.

"When we rescued Shiro, what was the first thing you said to me?"

Keith hesitates for the first time since the start of his impromptu interrogation, gaze flickering away for a second and head drooping. His lips press together, brows knitting together as he speaks in a low tone "I said 'who are you?' but Lance, I'm really sorry for not remembering you straight away. I don't- I can't-" he cuts himself off. It's a signature Keith look, eyes fixed on some insignificant patch of floor, head bowed slightly with tiny frown lines etched into his face. Lance has seen it too many times, when he does something impulsive and reckless in battle, awaiting a lecture for misbehaving. This more than anything convinces Lance that it must be the real Keith standing before him.

"Woah, dude, it's okay," he can't help but comfort him, the way he looks downright ashamed of himself tugging on his heart strings "you had a stressful year I guess, not like I gave you any fond memories to look back on. I don't blame you."

Lance could admit it had stung a bit at the time when Keith hadn't recognised him at all that day. But it had been a long time ago now, or at least they'd been through enough that it felt like it. They were past that now, and the thought of Keith- even this new, off version of Keith- being genuinely upset by it was uncomfortable.

Keith met his eyes then, the small smile back "I could never, ever forget you now. And I would never want to. I love you."

Shiro cleared his throat, jolting Lance back to the reality that his friends had been standing there silently watching the scene unfold the entire time.

"It's Keith," he was spared having to respond to Keith's declaration as he turned to face the rest of the team "but obviously something isn't right about him. Probably to do with that bite mark."

"Let's get him back to the ship, maybe the Princess will know something that can help." Shiro was always there with a plan of action, soothing Lance's frayed nerves momentarily. At least something still made sense after the most confusing five minutes of his life.

"Uh, should we all go back? Because Hunk still didn't get those plants he needed to cook with, and Keith isn't dying or anything." Pidge suggests "And we don't have the supplies Allura asked us to pick up either."

"Oh!" Hunk begins excitedly "I think I know what happened to Keith! When the Princess was telling me about the things safe on this planet to cook with she said to definitely stay away from a green flower thing because of the bugs that pollinate it. They temporarily alter something in your hormone levels. Might be the bug that bit Keith."

"And what exactly does this bug do?" Lance presses curiously, as Keith remains strangely unconcerned that he's been bitten by an alien bug that's messing with his mind.

"I don't know too much about it, but it causes something like infatuation I guess? Like a love potion." He offers with a shrug.

"That would make sense. We should still get him back to the castle to make sure he's okay, so Coran and Allura can run some tests." Shiro turns to address him, looking sympathetic "Lance, will you be okay to take him? Since he seems to have latched onto you. And Pidge is right, we really do need to gather those supplies."

Letting out a long suffering sigh, all Lance can do is nod reluctantly as he rolls his eyes. _Of course_ it had to be him who drew the short straw. _Of course_ it had to be Keith who was suddenly madly 'in love' with him. If it had been any of the others it would have been funny, something for him to joke about. Instead, he was left heart pounding in his chest and mind spinning for reasons he couldn't quite explain. But Lance was nothing if not adaptable, always one to make the best of a situation. So when Keith slips his hand into Lance's on the walk back without a word, he takes it on the chin like the soldier he's supposed to be though every instinct in him is screaming at him to wrench his arm away.

 _He's not in his right mind_ he tells himself firmly _just pretend it's a hot alien babe or something. You can deal with this._ Some part of him registers that Keith technically is half alien, but he pushes the thought away before he can think on it too hard.

"So," Lance begins, raising their intertwined hands between them "this is new."

"Shut up," Keith groans out, blushing "it just...feels right, you know?"

"Uh, sorry Keithy. I don't think I do know." Lance responds, though he still doesn't make any move to pull his hand away. Keith just holds on tighter.

"Look, I know I'm acting differently," Keith turns to meet his gaze once more, fire burning in his eyes in a way that almost dares Lance to question him "but something inside me is screaming at me to be near you. It's like an itch only you can scratch. Because I love you."

"You don't love me, buddy. You just feel like you do."

"Love is a feeling! Obviously I'm gonna feel like I love you, because I do." Keith is frowning again, an expression Lance is familiar with; it's the same one he makes when they argue usually. Weirdly, it's a comfort to see Keith's frowning face even if the topic of conversation has him on edge. At least he can rely on a petty disagreement with Keith while he feels majorly out of his depth to handle any of his other behaviour.

"Okay," Lance concedes, raising his free hand in a gesture of surrender "But you'll change your mind whenever this love bug wears off. Regular Keith hates me."

He knows it isn't strictly true even as he says it. Or at least he hopes it isn't; he and Keith had been getting a lot closer recently. Even so, it felt important to maintain this artificial distance he had created between them. They cared about each other, of course, they were teammates. Friends.

"If that's true, Regular Keith is stupid." Keith punctuates the point with a firm squeeze of his hand.

Lance can't quite help the smile that breaks out on his face "I'll remember that when you get back to normal."

"You better." Keith is smiling back at him, eyebrow raised in what's almost a challenge. The rest of the walk back passes quickly, with conversation between them remaining light and comfortable. Lance could almost forget what was going on, if it weren't for the steady pressure of a smaller hand pressed against his own.


End file.
